Until a few months ago she enjoyed a cushioned existence as wife of one of the country's most powerful leaders, Bo Xilai. Already party secretary of south-western Chongqing and a member of the 25-member politburo, he was tipped by some to rise further this autumn.

Now he has been ousted from his party positions in a scandal apparently triggered by accusations against his accomplished wife.

Gu, Bo's second wife, seems to have much in common with her husband. Like him she is known as charismatic, eloquent and bold. She forged a high-profile career as a lawyer, which she bolstered with two books on her successes representing a well-known sports coach and Chinese firms challenging a US court judgment.

Like him, she comes from party aristocracy: although her mother was descended from a famous Song dynasty minister, her father, Gu Jingsheng, was a renowned Communist general.

Like him, she and her four sisters suffered when their parents were persecuted and imprisoned during the cultural revolution. She spent time as a labourer, a butcher and a textile worker.

She later studied law and international politics at Peking University, where Bo had previously studied world history and journalism.

And while it is not clear that she shared her husband's enthusiasm for revolutionary "red songs", she was reportedly so skilled at the pipa – a Chinese lute – that her playing graced the soundtrack of a documentary on Chairman Mao.

The couple met in 1984 while she was on a university research trip to northern Liaoning, she told a Chinese newspaper. Bo was party secretary of the county she visited. "He was very much like my father, that sort of extremely idealistic person," Gu said.

She reportedly turned down a scholarship to study in the US rather than be separated from him. They married in 1986 and their son, Bo Guagua, was born a year later.

She set up her law firm, Kailai, soon afterwards, moving it to Beijing in 1995 and writing a book titled Winning A Lawsuit in America. Bo reportedly boasted that his wife was a good writer, who combined her knowledge of traditional Chinese culture with modern thoughts.

Gu said that she had taken on the US case for free at the request of officials in Dalian, where the Chinese firms contesting the judgment were based and where Bo was then mayor.

Marion Wynne, a lawyer who worked with Gu on the case in Mobile, Alabama, said she had been persistent and highly focused. When he and his family spent five days in Dalian as guests of the city following their victory, they saw another side to her: "She was fun to be with, with a great sense of humour.

"We found her to be a delightful person – very kind to us, very attentive to us as visitors and very personable."

But as her husband climbed the political ladder, Gu's public profile declined dramatically.

Bo told reporters last month that she gave up her career two decades ago so she could not be accused of benefiting from his position.

"She now basically just stays at home, doing some housework for me. I'm touched by her sacrifice," he told the press conference, in his final public comments before he was sacked as Communist party secretary of Chongqing.

Others say that her retreat from law was more recent, but that she certainly took a step back after he became governor of Liaoning province in 2001. Kailai changed its name to Ang Dao and Gu did not appear to be actively involved.

She is thought to have spent much of her time in the UK, where their son studied at Papplewick, a prep school in Ascot; Harrow and then Oxford University from 2000. It is understood Gu had suffered from depression in recent years, and it is thought she may also have sought treatment in Britain.

The WSJ said Heywood told one friend that Gu had become increasingly anxious following a corruption investigation around five years ago, becoming unsure of who she could trust and at one point urging her friends to divorce their spouses and swear an oath of loyalty. The newspaper also said he told friends that he feared for his safety after clashing with Gu – although people who met him in the months before his death said he seemed sanguine about the cooling of his friendship with the family.

State media has said authorities believe that she and Heywood "had conflict over economic interests, which had been intensified".

The murder accusation shocked the nation – but is even more astonishing to those who knew her as a fast-rising young lawyer.

"Some of the characterisations of her I have read – about her 'paranoia' – are just not the person I got to know," said Wynne. "It seems like a totally different person."